Case Number 07734: Small Claims Court

GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN, ALICE COOPER

The Charge

I love the dead before they are cold, their bluing flesh for me to
hold.

Mother and Father, do you know what your children are listening
to?

The Case

"I don't really look at Alice as being a villain at this point. I see
Alice as being some sort of, like, social Frankenstein. Sort of like something
that climbed out of the garbage of America." -- Vincent Furnier

Although he may seem a bit tame by today's standards (those that are sinking
depravedly lower by the moment), there's no question that Vincent Furnier, aka
Alice Cooper, is still riveting and rousing to behold. With over 30 years of
performance, chart-topping hits, and numerous platinum albums to his credit, the
Coop has proven he has the endurance to thrill and chill with his patented brand
of theatrical "Shock Rock" album after album, year after year. No
stranger to film, Cooper has done plenty of acting in his day, including cameos
in 1978's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1980's Roadie,
and 1984's Monster Dog (to name just a few). On the concert scene, some
of his finest work has been captured on film as well, including 1975's
Welcome to My Nightmare, 1978's The Strange Case of Alice Cooper,
and 2000's Alice Cooper: Brutally Live. It's his concert films that are
the most sought-after since it's Alice's show that has propelled him to
rock-icon status behind which all imitators would yearn to follow. During the
VHS and Beta heyday of the 1980s, many of Alice's filmed exploits surfaced to
feed the world's newfound hunger for home video. Since those days, a few of the
inferior tape releases have found their way to DVD while others have yet to be
re-mastered. One significant film, however, has eluded all home video
formats, much to fans' perpetual dismay...until now. Now, thanks to the
sustained interest in Alice by new fans as well as old, the long sought-after
film that captured the record-breaking Billion Dollar Babies tour of 1973
has finally been resurrected by the gleeful ghouls at Shout! Factory. And to
this we say Good to See You Again, Alice Cooper!

Despite four very competent albums having been released between 1969 and
1972, the band known as "Alice Cooper" wasn't catching the
mainstream's attention. Early followers and confounded critics were confused:
was "Alice" the group's name or that of the gangly lead singer? It
didn't matter because the band, formerly known as The Spiders, was barely
surviving in the dungeon of freakish rock and roll. It wasn't until the brooding
and boiling youth anthem, "School's Out," (from the album of the same
name) hit the airwaves in 1972 that the band was propelled -- like it or not --
into the spotlight for all to see. Sure, the band was strange and their previous
four albums were a then-crunching oddity that furrowed parents' brows. The pink
panties that clung to the "School's Out" LP, which was contained in a
clever fold-out school desk record jacket, had moms and dads rightly nervous.
Whose panties were these in Johnny's room, hanging limply off the corner of his
stereo phonograph? Were they Alice's and, if so, wasn't she a man?
Trouble had come to Smalltown, USA.

Despite attempts to ban and belittle this spider-eyed singer and his
irreverent band mates, the troupe's next album, Billion Dollar Babies,
released in January 1973, took the country by storm. It ascended to the #1 spot
on the Billboard Top 200 chart and spawned three Top 40 hit singles, "No
More Mr. Nice Guy," "Elected," and "Hello Hooray." The
freak show had come to stay, and, thanks to his increasingly outrageous stage
antics, Furnier would emerge front and center and ultimately become known as Mr.
Alice Cooper.

I got no friends 'cause they read the papers, they can't be seen
with me.

The ensuing Billion Dollar Babies would prove to be one of the most
elaborate and expensive stage shows of its day, also giving birth to the notion
of "stadium rock" events. Good to See You Again, Alice Cooper
captures performances from the April 28 and 29, 1973 shows performed in Dallas
and Houston, Texas, respectively. Under the working title of Hard Hearted
Alice, the film was never intended to be just a concert show. Rather, it was
to include an intertwined saga of Alice Cooper, a man on trial for his
indiscretions as a rock and roll miscreant. That thin plotline almost
immediately unraveled, giving way to an almost completely spontaneous and
unscripted lark where Alice and the "Cooper Gang" bust up the lush and
lavish film production of "The Lady is a Tramp" at the horror of the
thickly German-accented Herr Direcktor. The band levels the stage set --
literally -- and heads off to do what they do best: shock and satisfy the hordes
of concert goers who are eager to experience the band's unique brand of Sick
Things first hand. Meanwhile, as the band plays on, Herr Direcktor and his
portly sidekick, the helmeted Baron Krelve, fruitlessly attempt to intercept the
singing sickos. Herr Direcktor ultimately winds up sprawled on the sofa of
psychiatrist Dr. Fenton Norvel to tell his tale of woe to the analyst who
remains obscured in the shadows of his office. But the band continues to
brutalize the audience with its unyielding and unapologetic barrage of
screeching guitar chords, thumping bass lines, and wailing vocals...and the
audience loves it...to death.

Yes, it is good to see this film again. Long time fans of Cooper can finally
discard their gray-market bootlegs of this formerly unreleased epic and lap up
this excellently mastered DVD with wild abandon. The source print is quite rough
in that it exhibits plenty of film dirt and scratches; oddly and perhaps
fittingly, that adds to the overall texture and grittiness of the Alice Cooper
experience. The print appears to be complete (save for either a rough splice or
a poor edit in a portion of the "Billion Dollar Babies" performance)
and includes the original interspersed skit pieces (these were replaced briefly
by newsreel and other vintage film footage during the film's brief theatrical
run in 1974, mostly to midnight-movie gatherings). Rescued from oblivion,
Good to See You Again, Alice Cooper is presented in a new high-definition
transfer that looks much better than the blurry and frequently incomplete
bootleg tapes of the past. Given the film's obscurity, the transfer looks great,
yet do expect to see plenty of grain and frequent softness that marks the often
haphazard production value of a 1970s concert film not backed by major studio
funding. It's an anamorphic transfer that's framed at the film's original 1.85:1
widescreen aspect ratio, to boot.

The audio comes by way of a remarkably restored 16-track master tape
soundtrack, mixed competently to deliver a perfect balance between the band's
impressive musicianship -- that of the excellent original lineup of Dennis
Dunaway, Michael Bruce, Neal Smith, and Glen Buxton -- and Cooper's
appropriately-competent vocals. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is well blended and
well managed to provide an enveloping soundstage that puts you in the middle of
the flailing crowd. While the skit segments are prone to occasional shrillness,
the live performances never top out.

This is a dream -- or a nightmare -- come true for all Alice fans. It's
about time.

But don't rush out and buy your copy just yet, not until you've heard about
all the bonus features here, anyway. They begin with a very welcome audio
commentary by Mr. Nightmare himself, Alice Cooper. He begins by proclaiming the
lead-in ratings band, "PG...for Positively Gross," and provides a
steady offering of comments, observations, and perspective on the whole affair.
Although he lapses into viewing in silence quite often, he maintains a decent
amount of input throughout his un-moderated screening. Next up, you'll find an
unedited version of the "Unfinished Sweet" performance where Alice
gets "dental" with a drill, a giant tube of toothpaste, and a dancing
tooth. Then there's a deleted skit-like scene of Alice and the band fighting off
a group of unlikely assailants on an airport tarmac. If you want to skip all of
the skit sequences, you can choose to view a concert-only presentation of the
film. The original theatrical trailer is here along with a still gallery of
original promotional materials. Band biographies are next and there are some
well-hidden Easter eggs for you adventurous types. Lastly, the animated menu
screens -- three of them -- each offer an audio track that features original
promotional radio spots heralding that the decay and depravity has come to your
local theater.

In all, it's like manna from Heaven to find Good to See You Again, Alice
Cooper in your DVD tray. Thanks to the loving restoration by the team at
Shout! Factory, Alice fans can stop gnashing their teeth and can bite into this
juicy new release that's sure to offend your grandma. Then again, don't be too
surprised if you learn she was pumping her fist decades ago to the shock and
spectacle of it all. Grannies gotta rock, too, y'know. And, if Shout! Factory is
truly up to the task, fans can hope to see follow-on re-masterings of The
Strange Case of Alice Cooper and television's highly-acclaimed Alice
Cooper: The Nightmare.